The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, in its annual report titled Fragmented Lives: Humanitarian Overview 2015, that an estimated 90,000 Palestinians are still displaced in Gaza largely due to Israel’s 2014 aggression.

The report said that the suffering of Gaza population resulting from the 2014 hostilities - with close to 90,000 Palestinians still displaced during the second half of 2015 - was compounded by the Israeli blockade, the almost continuous closure of the Rafah passenger crossing by Egypt, and by internal Palestinian divisions.

Although no major displacement occurred in Gaza in 2015, internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Gaza Strip continue to suffer from the devastating consequences of the 2014 hostilities between Israel and Palestinian armed groups with an estimated 90,000 people still displaced during the second half of 2015.

Meanwhile, the report noted that the number of Palestinian structures demolished, or dismantled and confiscated by the Israeli authorities across the West Bank sharply increased in the first four months of 2016, surpassing the figures for all of 2015 (598 vs. 548).

Overall, 858 Palestinians, around half of them children (416), were displaced, compared to 787 people in the whole 2015.

In the Gaza Strip, the reconstruction and repair of homes destroyed and damaged during the 2014 hostilities continued during the first quarter of 2016.

However, “Obstacles on the entry into Gaza of the enormous amounts of construction materials needed for the repair and reconstruction of homes has been a major challenge.” Israeli settlements, which have been established and expanded in the occupied West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, in contravention of international law, underlie many of the concerns highlighted in this report and generate the need for assistance and protection measures by humanitarian actors.

The report stated that Palestinian civilians continued to be subjected to threats to their lives, physical safety and liberty from conflict-related violence, and from policies and practices related to the Israeli occupation, including settler violence.

While most of 2015 witnessed a relative calm compared to 2014, tension rose in September in occupied Jerusalem, with protests, clashes and violence spreading to the remaining oPt, including to the Access Restricted Areas (ARA) in Gaza in October.

Due to the upsurge in violence in the last quarter, 2015 recorded the highest number of casualties among West Bank Palestinians since 2005. In Gaza, the August 2014 ceasefire has largely held, as reflected in the relatively low number of fatalities, although casualties also rose in the final quarter of the year, along with the escalation in the West Bank.

As of the end of 2015 there were over 6,000 Palestinians held by the Israeli Prison Service on ‘security’ grounds, the highest such figure since 2010. The number of children among them, 422, was also the highest since August 2008, when this indicator began to be tracked, including six held in administrative detention, without charge.

Some 80 per cent of the Palestinian children imprisoned were in pre-trial detention, the majority facing stone-throwing charges. These conditions continued to cause a protracted protection crisis with humanitarian consequences, where Palestinians face a range of threats that undermine their ability to live self-sustaining lives and prevent the enjoyment of their rights, including the right to self-determination.

The Adalah and Al Mezan centers for human rights urged the Israeli occupation to return the boats which were confiscated from Palestinian fishermen in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Adalah and Al Mezan sent complaints to Israeli war minister Avigdor Lieberman, Chief Military Advocate General Danny Efroni, and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit demanding that they order the return of boats and equipment recently confiscated by the Israeli navy from Palestinian fishermen off the coast of the Gaza Strip.

Adalah filed the complaints on behalf of five Gaza residents whose fishing boats and equipment – valued at up to tens of thousands of shekels – were confiscated and are now being held by the Israeli military.

In each incident, Israeli navy vessels opened fire on or near the fishing boats, ordered the fishermen to remove their clothes, and then detained the men for a day or two for interrogation.

In most of the incidents, Israeli soldiers also ordered the fishermen to jump into the sea and swim towards the Israeli navy vessels.

In his letter, Adalah Attorney Nadeem Shehadeh argued that there was no reason to detain the fishermen or to confiscate their property as they had never strayed beyond the boundaries of the permitted fishing zone designated by the Israeli military.

Attorney Shehadeh also emphasized that the fishermen never received any documentation of the confiscation of their boats and equipment or the reasons for the confiscations from the Israeli occupation authorities.

"All these boats are used by their owners for fishing as part of the local economy and as a source of income for the boat owners and their employees,” he added. "The attacks on these fishing boats and fishermen constitute an intentional assault on civilian targets forbidden according to laws of warfare," Attorney Shehadeh wrote.

"The apprehension of these boats was accompanied by live gunfire directed both at the boats and the fishermen, acts which placed the lives of the fishermen in danger and were liable to cause them bodily harm. The fishermen were arrested and held under hard and humiliating conditions," the lawyer further stated.

According to international law, such acts violate both the Geneva and Hague conventions: Under Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, “protected persons are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honour … They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof …”.

Adalah and Al Mezan demanded therefore that the Israeli army minister, chief military advocate general, and AG order the return to the Gazan fishermen of their boats and equipment, and to determine clear regulations that will allow fishermen to carry out their work and earn a living without being disturbed or attacked by the Israeli military.

The groups also called on the Israeli authorities to issue clear guidelines for the return of confiscated property and compensation for damage to boats and to economic livelihoods resulting from such confiscations.

Three Palestinians were injured when part of the ceiling of their house collapsed in the Khan Yunis district of the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

Palestinian sources said that the house belonged to Muhammad Lahham.

Lahham and two of his sons were injured with light to moderate wounds during the incident, and were taken to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, the sources added.

The Gaza Strip has seen three wars with Israel since 2008, with Israel's 2014 offensive destroying 12,600 homes, and leaving another 6,500 severely damaged and 150,000 housing units uninhabitable.

According to the UN, 75,000 Palestinians remained homeless in the blockaded Gaza Strip nearly two years after Israel's last devastating offensive in 2014, which killed more than 2,200 Palestinians.

Reconstruction efforts have been painfully slow -- hindered by Israel's stringent siege on the small Palestinian territory, ongoing disputes with the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, and a severe shortage of foreign assistance.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has played a leading role in rebuilding destroyed homes in the beleaguered coastal enclave, but said that of the $720 million required for its emergency shelter program, donor countries have pledged only $247 million.

The UN warned in September that if current trends were to continue unchanged in Gaza, the territory would be uninhabitable by 2020.

Israeli soldiers invaded, on Tuesday at dawn, Beit Fajjar town, south of Bethlehem, and kidnapped one Palestinian. The soldiers also invaded Rashayda village, east of Bethlehem, and handed demolition orders targeting two barns.

The soldiers invaded Beit Fajjar, before breaking into and searching a few homes, and kidnapped Mohammad Ja’far Taqatqa, 25.

The invasion led to clashes between the soldiers and local youths, who hurled stones on the military vehicles, while the army fired gas bombs and concussion grenades.

In addition, the soldiers invaded Rashayda village, east of Bethlehem, and handed demolition orders targeting two barns, allegedly for being built near a “military zone.”

Local sources said the orders were handed to Ali Odah and Farhan Ali Rashayda, and that the two residents use the sheds to for their sheep in this grazing area.Fawwaz Rashayda, the head of the Rashayda Village Council, said the soldiers have been targeting the shepherds in this area, known as Rajm an-Naqa, and that the barns are located in Palestinian lands that were declared by the army as a closed military zone.

In The Gaza Strip, several israeli military bulldozers and tanks invaded Palestinian lands, east of Gaza City, and fired several live rounds.The soldiers also installed several sand hills, in the area that faces the border fence, and a military base.

Israeli navy ships opened fired, on Sunday morning, on a number of Palestinian fishing boats, near Gaza City, causing serious property damage.

The Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) said the soldiers fired many live rounds targeting the boats while they were less than six nautical miles from the shore in the Sudaniyya Sea area, northwest of Gaza City.

WAFA added that the attack caused excessive property damage in a number of boats, forcing the fishers back to shore, in fear of further violations.

The navy frequently attacks Gaza fishers and their boats, including the repeated abduction of the fishers and the confiscation of their boats. Such attacks led to dozens of casualties, including fatalities.

Local sources said that IOF soldiers near the border fence got out of their patrol jeeps and opened fire at the farmers working in their land and shepherds rearing their sheep to the east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

They said that the intensive shooting forced the farmers and shepherds to leave the area, adding that no casualties were suffered.

Medical sources have reported, Friday, that Israeli soldiers shot and injured a Palestinian teen with a live round, while dozens of residents suffered the effects of teargas inhalation, east of Gaza city.

The sources said that soldiers, stationed in the Nahal Oz military base, across the border fence, east of the Sheja’eyya neighborhood in Gaza, fired many live rounds targeting Palestinian protestors, wounding a young man in his leg.

The wounded young man was moved to the Shifa Hospital, west of Gaza city, a suffering moderate injury.

Medics also provided the needed treatment to many Palestinians who suffered the effects of teargas inhalation.

It is worth mentioning that Palestinians in border areas in the besieged coastal region are subject to repeated Israeli assaults, and ongoing invasions into their agricultural lands, in addition to frequent attacks against the fishers in Gaza territorial waters.

Israeli military vehicles invaded, earlier on Thursday morning, Palestinian agricultural lands, east of the al-Boreij Refugee Camp, in Central Gaza, and fired live rounds and smoke bombs.

The WAFA Palestinian News Agency said four Israeli tanks, and three bulldozers, advanced more than 150 meters into agricultural lands, east of the al-Boreij refugee camp.

It added that the bulldozes installed sand hills, close to the border fence, in the invaded lands, and uprooting some of them.

The army also fired many smoke bombs and several rounds of live ammunition, while surveillance drones hovered overhead.

The invasion is part of daily violations carried out by the Israeli army in Palestinian lands, in border areas in the coastal region, and constant assaults by the navy against fishers and their boats in Gaza’s territorial waters.

Several armored Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers invaded, on Wednesday morning, Palestinian agricultural lands, close to the border fence, in the southern and central parts of the Gaza Strip.

Several tanks and bulldozers, stationed in the Kissufim military base, east of Khan Younis, invaded Palestinian lands, northeast of al-Qarara town, northeast of Khan Younis, while three tanks were positioned behind sand hills, across the border fence.

In addition, six armored Israeli military vehicles, including four tanks, advanced more than 150 meters into agricultural lands, east of Deir al-Balah in Central Gaza, and bulldozed Palestinian them, while surveillance drones hovered overhead.

The vehicles fired several live rounds at random, media sources in Khan Younis had reported. They also came from the Kissufim military base.

Palestinian medical sources have reported that one fisher was shot and injured by Israeli navy fire, and four others were kidnapped, after the navy ships attacked them in Gaza waters, near the shore of Wadi Gaza area, southwest of Gaza city.

The Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) quoted a fisher stating that the Israeli navy fired many live rounds, targeting several fishing boats, wounding one fisher, before the soldiers kidnapped him along with four others.

WAFA added that the navy confiscated two fishing boats that were attacked by its fire, after abducting the fishers.

Updated From — May 31, 2016 @ 11:34:

Israeli navy ships opened fire, on Tuesday at dawn, targeting a number of Palestinians fishing boats in Gaza territorial waters, in different parts of the coastal region, causing damage to at least two boats, and kidnapped four fishers.

The WAFA News Agency said Israeli navy ships fired several live rounds on fishing boats, less than six nautical miles from the coast in the Sudaniyya area, northwest of Gaza city. At least two boats were hit, and the fishers sailed back to shore, fearing additional escalation.

A similar attack took place in Palestinian waters in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, forcing the fishers back to shore.

In addition, the navy ships surrounded two fishing boats in Gaza Sea, and boarded them before kidnapping four fishers, and confiscating their boats.